Lost Dogs - Pearl Jam (CD 2003)

My ever-intense obsession with the ROCK GODS (oh yeah!) that are Pearl Jam have taken me in a lot of directions, to a lot of places, in search of the elusive Pearl Jam rarity. Most common destination? EBay. Inexplicably, I've never joined up with the Ten Club, a Club in which members get perks like first access to concert tickets, first access to some new releases, and, perhaps most importantly, a bonus otherwise unavailable 7" record with some tasty rare treats at the end of every year. So EBay it is, to find the next rarity for my collection (next on the list...the '93 fan club single, featuring the super-rare "Angel").

So yes, I guess you could call me a collector.

Still, collector or not, the first priority for me is still the music. I'm not trying to buy the '93 single for the sole purpose of completing my collection; rather, it's because I'd really like to hear "Angel", and its B-side "Ramblings" (also known as "F*ck Me in the Brain") sounds pretty entertaining, too. Some might say that the value of such a song has been diluted by the advent of Napster and "free" downloads, and they've got a point--still, I prefer to live in the fantasy world where the only way to get a piece of recorded media is to find one of the copies that was legitimately pressed, whether it be on vinyl, tape, CD, 8-track, whatever, and listen to it that way. As such, "Angel" will likely be well worth the inflated price I'll pay for it, even if it's a subpar song--the mere "knowledge" that I'll be one of the few who gets to hear it excites me.

Deluded? Maybe. But the rush I get when I finally do pick up one of my rarities excites me enough to justify a little bit of delusion.

Which brings me to Lost Dogs, the recently released double-CD set of Pearl Jam B-Sides and rarities. For a song collector such as myself, the release of B-Side / rarity collections does sometimes serve to cheapen the value of what I might already own, as suddenly, those things don't seem quite so special anymore. To a point, this happened when the release of Lost Dogs was announced, as a couple of my semi-but-not-really-rarities (the Jeremy single, the Save You single, my '99 fan club single) were rendered obsolete by the collection. Still, the amazing thing that Pearl Jam managed to pull off with Lost Dogs is the inclusion of an album's worth of stuff that hadn't been released anywhere, thus making Lost Dogs worth drooling over even for those fans who "had it all" already. This knowledge was more than enough to comfort any sort of blow my ego took when some of my precious rarities were to be made available to the public at large. New Pearl Jam, even old new Pearl jam, is just too much of a joy to feel any lasting effects of the "no longer rare" punch.

In a nutshell, I got over myself and managed to absolutely love Lost Dogs in the process. A happy ending, if ever there was one.

Disc one rocks out without abandon. If the hard-rockin sh!t-kickin' side of Pearl Jam is the one that draws you to the band, then disc one will make you very happy indeed. "All Night" is a No Code outtake, and I'd take it over "Habit" on that album in a second, as the hard-drivin' feel is similar, but it's more cohesive than "Habit" and features lots of neato four-part harmonies. Lots of Eddie here. "Sad" is the first of a whole mess of Binaural outtakes on Lost Dogs, and it's the best of the bunch as far as I'm concerned. Better than at least half of that album, it's a driving reflection on the death of a loved one, emotion building as the music intensifies, all of it culminating in a tremendous guitar solo. For something that rocks this much, it's a beautiful song. "Down" is a slightly country Riot Act B-side, and it's got a much welcomed lighter feel than much of the music on that album. Again, the guitar lines propel the song into classic territory.

"Hitchhiker" and "Don't Gimme No Lip" are the first indication that, yes, we are listening to outtakes here. "Hitchhiker" is another Binaural outtake, and it finds Vedder multitracking his vocals again, but this time the effect is messy rather than lush. "Don't Gimme No Lip" is a supremely annoying song with guitarist Stone Gossard on lead vocals. A total skip. "Alone" sees the band diving into Ten and Vs. era material, as it first surfaced as the B-side to "Go". This version is messier and louder than that version, and it's missing my favorite part of the song, a chant of sorts that helps build the guitar solo in the middle. Nice to have the song here, but the original would have been nicer. "In the Moonlight" and "Education" are more Binaural cuts, both OK but sort of forgettable rockers. "Black, Red, Yellow" and "U" are Yield-era B-sides, and they're also nothing special, but they've both got some nifty melodies that at least make them worth revisiting. "Black, Red, Yellow" has an appealing down 'n dirty vibe, while "U" is practically pop, but they share the infectious, cohesive feel that made Pearl Jam untouchable at the time.

"Leavin' Here" is as catchy as it is raw, and this High Numbers cover (a song The Who made their own) simply rips. "Gremmie Out of Control" and "Whale Song" are obvious toss-offs, and I'm just glad I didn't have to buy the Music for Our Mother Ocean discs to get them. "Undone" is another Riot Act B-side, and I've found that it's a great song to drive to. "Hold On" is an excellent Vs. outtake, one I could listen to over and over again. The anthemic chorus is uplifting to the point of euphoria, and the guitar sounds, well...it's like coming home. Here's that chorus I love so much:

I know, life could be different if I held on
I know, I could be something if I held on

...simple, yet effective. Finally, disc one sends us out with "Yellow Ledbetter", a song that you already know if you're actually still reading this.

Disc two is where the real treasure lies, as the affecting, sensitive side of the band is allowed to show through in all its quiet majesty. If songs like "Black" and "Light Years" are your thing, well, this is your place to be. The disc starts on a somewhat mediocre note with fifth and final Binaural outtake "Fatal", a plodding trudge of a song with a somewhat uplifting (if lazily performed) chorus. "Other Side", however, is an exquisite Riot Act outtake that managed to prompt one of those wonderful moments of Music-Life synchronicity--listening to the CD in my car, I started thinking about lost loved ones, and when I got to one in particular, a mass of birds flew into the air, as if someone was saying hi...right on the lyric of I'm not the same without you here. What a moment, one that will define the song as long as I listen to it.

Some older tracks throw bones to the fans of the old-school Pearl Jam sound. "Hard to Imagine" is a lighter-waver of a song that starts slow and stays there. It's rather lovely, but I kind of understand why it was relegated to obscure soundtrack status. "Footsteps" is evidently a studio version of the Jeremy B-Side, where the presence of a harmonica startles at first, but eventually just seems to fit. "Wash" is a lovely slow jam of a song, emphasis on jam, and "Dead Man", from the Off He Goes single, contains some of Eddie Vedder's most haunting lyrics ever. "Strangest Tribe" and "Drifting" were from the '99 fan club 7" single, and they're both acoustic ditties; "Strangest Tribe" is haunting and melodic, where "Drifting" ambles along like a song you'd sing around the campfire. "Let Me Sleep" is a rarity from the very first fan club single, and it's a pleasant, if rather sad Christmas song for the ages.

Then there's "Last Kiss", which, while it's true it's never appeared on an album, seems a bit out of place here as it's Pearl Jam's biggest chart hit ever.

The last few tunes kind of stray from the slow contemplative route, as they don't seem to fit with the themes of either disc. "Sweet Lew" is funk-hip-hop stuff that seems harmless enough until the rather annoying, dischordant chorus shows up and just blows it all to hell. "Dirty Frank" was written on tour with the Chili Peppers, and continues in the funk-hip-hop vein, except this time with much better results. The tale of "Dirty Frank Dahmer" (who eventually eats guitarist Mike McCready) is hilarious, and worth a listen for anyone not averse to a Pearl Jam song with a sense of humor. "Brother" is an instrumental of another Ten-era song, and it sounds decent enough, but I have a hard time with Pearl Jam songs without lyrics...especially when it sounds like there should be lyrics there. Finally, there's "Bee Girl", a quick acoustic toss-off radio-show appearance which laments the fate of the Bee Girl from Blind Melon's "No Rain" video. It's humorous, but kind of forgettable.

But wait--you didn't think we'd be let off without a secret track, did you? Apparently titled "4/20/02" for the date of Alice in Chains' Layne Staley's death, it's a harrowing track featuring only Vedder and his electric guitar, alternately detailing a startling account of addiction and lashing out at Staley's imitators. It's a painful display of raw emotion, and as such, it's as good a reason as any to own this collection.

Speaking of good reasons to own Lost Dogs, the liner notes are some of the best I've read in a while. All of the members of the band come together to write some notes that are in-depth analyses of the songs' content, while others are just quick lines that just seem to get the songs to make more sense. For example, there's Vedder's bit on "Drifting": "Sometimes I wish there was a Teepees 'R Us". That one entertained me for a solid day or so.

I can't say I expected to spend so much space writing about an outtakes and B-sides compilation, but Lost Dogs simply has too many hidden treasures to ignore. For the Pearl Jam fan it's an invaluable resource for rare material, and I'd even go so far as to say that there would be worse places to start than Lost Dogs for the Pearl Jam novice--if nothing else, it gives the listener a good idea of the sound of Pearl Jam at every point in their career, thus allowing the novice Pearl Jam listener to decide what might be most appealing to them. In any case, even if the whole thing doesn't necessarily completely bowl me over, there's enough good to be found in Lost Dogs to make me pull it out as much as most of my actual Pearl Jam albums.

Four stars, but awfully close to five.